3D City Farms: 5 Urban Design Proposals for Green Towers

Imagine the world in 2050 with almost 80% of the planet’s population living in urban centers and our fruit, vegetables and even animals are grown in … skyscrapers? One man’s vision has sparked a series of designs leading closer and closer to what will be the first real-life vertical urban farm in Las Vegas, Nevada of all places. Here are five of these remarkable architectural designs for sustainable (and stylish) urban farm towers that may revolutionize agriculture as we know it. In the long run such structures may not only provide food for hundreds of thousands of people per building but they will also relieve much of the burden on other flat landscapes where fewer and fewer usable growing spaces exist.

One of the first designs of its kind, the compelling vertical farm project above was undertaken by Chris Jacobs in cooperation with the grandfather of skyscraper farm concepts: Dr. Dickson Despommier of Columbia University. His ideal: all-in-one eco-towers would be actually produce more energy, water (via condensation/purification) and food than their occupants would consume. His mission: to gather architects, engineers, economists and urban planners to develop a sustainable and high-tech wonder of ecological engineering.

Architect Pierre Sartoux of Atelier SOA has gone a step further and put some serious design talent behind his proposal for a vertical farming skyscraper. A light-shading skin wraps around the structure and opens to admit sunlight at particular locations for various functional (and aesthetic) purposes. The building’s air, heating and cooling systems are wind-driven and circulate oxygen and carbon dioxide between growing and living spaces. The simple but reinforced structure is designed to handle additional dead loads from the weight of growing floors and also serve to make the entire building more durable (and thus sustainable).

Given that most urban cores are already densely built, one designer has proposed an auxiliary series of structures to be attached to existing structures in downtown areas. These modular constructions would provide garden and recreation spaces for residents as well as light and air filters for the adjacent buildings. In some cases, these retrofits could even provide structural stability to aged buildings and prevent the need to tear them down. Architecturally, these modular units stand out and add another layer to the visual hierarchy of the cities around them.

The Pacific Northwest regional architecture firm Mithun developed a compelling vertical farm building design to incorporate various green building strategies in a mixed-use residential and commercial complexdesigned for downtown Seattle. The concept? Simply put, the structure is designed as a kind of built organism – completely self-sufficient and adaptive to its surroundings. The design includes water and energy self-sufficiency from rainwater and gray water collection and reuse, solar cells, vegetable and grain growing spaces and even a chicken farm – all built on a small-footprint downtown urban lot.

Architect Gordon Graff may succeed in the more green and progressive city of Toronto with his plans for a sky farm with 48 floors and millions of square feet of floor space (and even more growing space). This building, if constructed, will be able to feed tens of thousands of people per year. Best of all, particularly in Canada, the success of the building’s crops isn’t contingent upon climactic conditions. As an architectural and urban design gesture this structure both fits into the city skyline and differentiates itself with simple layers of green.

Depending on your point of view Las Vegas might be the first or it could be the last place you’d imagine the 30-story world’s first vertical farm. Of course, the food isn’t going to feed the famished masses. It will instead grace the dinner plates of Vegas tourists at local casinos and hotels. Still, as a prototype it has a lot of potential to generate further buzz and interest that could in turn lead to future projects. If the model proves both profitable and sustainable (always the best combination) it will likely (and hopefully) be the first of many.

I remember when kid seing those sci-fi movies, such as Space 1999, and when they showed those scenes with agriculture : this will be the future.
And if we think about it, screenplayers, movie directors, writers, they are often visionaries. And what we often see in movies is what will be the future.
One of those examples is in my opinion the movie Total Recall.
I find this project to be visionary.
And I just hope that we don’t follow the way of profit at all cost instead of quality.

your probably right Jose… Total Recall could be based on reality… Philip K Dick, the writer, as been known to foresee the future.

As for these agro buildings… I really hope we start seeing them soon. It would probably be easier to keep pests out and grow organic food more easily. Also anything that brings more green into city centers would be great to have.

cisionMarch 30th, 2008 at 8:03 pm

A reflective shell that would spiral down slowly by gravity somehow would be a neat way to give light to the other side. If solar panals were added with the reflectors, then that energy could be stored to raise the reflectors back to the top.

Something like this would be a great platform for wind energy.

I think the whole thing should be more open with a central spire with platforms.

Smaller versions in an orchard style would be interesting.

Asia’h EppersonMarch 30th, 2008 at 8:17 pm

It would be nice to have all these buildings, but is it practical?

Xauri’ELMarch 30th, 2008 at 8:32 pm

I’m sure that once 90% of the rain forest is gone and our agricultural breadbaskets have been turned into huge dust bowls by factory farming, these will be producing plenty of ROI.

HeyaMarch 30th, 2008 at 8:40 pm

Man, Captain Planet sure sold out to the big C.

BootoMarch 30th, 2008 at 8:59 pm

I can say to myself.It’s so great!

DanMarch 30th, 2008 at 9:16 pm

Indoor agriculture is energy intensive – whether in a futuristic skyscraper or lowly greenhouse. That’s why it’s rarely used for production, but instead for starting seedlings or breeding.

The truth of the matter is we’ve got plenty of surplus land for farming, especially in the US with our relatively low population to acreage ratio. And despite claims by the agribusiness industry, a diversified polyculture grown in a sustainable, organic agricultural system can produce much higher yields than monocultures of chemical dependent row crops. The catch is it requires critical thinking and more labor than the one size fits all perspective of conventional agriculture.

Is building an energy and capital intensive skyscraper really the best way to feed urban centers – which local agriculture is already perfectly capable of doing?

System like this really only make sense for producing crops that otherwise need to travel long distances to reach market, such as tomatoes in December in Chicago, or bananas anywhere in the continental US.

Ironically, if more people lived in skyscrapers instead of sprawling suburbs, there would be less pressure on the food distribution network and less farm land lost to development. Perhaps it makes more sense to put people inside skyscrapers instead of soil?

But in any case, our agricultural problems are more a matter of economics and technique than anything else.

peterMarch 30th, 2008 at 10:15 pm

Leafy greens are ideal crops for this situation. The Hmong refugees who arrived in the early 1980s were able to produce huge gardens of leafy vegetables on the steep, very poor soils of urban railroad right of way, even with slope of 45 degrees or greater. It would be largley a social problem of educating people to urban agriculture.

ccreviewMarch 31st, 2008 at 12:00 am

I can imagine such buildings combined with living space would provide an excellent envrioment to live in.

orinokMarch 31st, 2008 at 12:47 am

God bless ecological people

LauraMarch 31st, 2008 at 12:53 am

i hope i’ll be still alive at 2050 to see all of those things…

IndianMarch 31st, 2008 at 6:14 am

Good pics , hope they will complete fast and show real.

WowbaggerMarch 31st, 2008 at 1:58 pm

I want one in my urban sprawl please.

Seriously, how comes with these ideas. Instead of building expansive structures for the food we eat, perhaps we should build expansive structures for ourselves first, in order to make a more efficient use of the space that is available to us. If our transportation systems were a bit more integrated to our urban environment, there would be less of these roads everyone dislike and we’d save a lot of space. Not to mention we could give everyone housing…

igreenspotMarch 31st, 2008 at 11:12 pm

good concept, will it become reality ? since I’ve seen a lot of building concept with eco friendly concept, yet none is being built

PowerofdreamsApril 1st, 2008 at 3:06 am

Fantastic and Creative Thinking :)

ostApril 1st, 2008 at 4:20 am

what about all the polution that major cities come with? do you really want ur food grown in acid rain, poluted air and dirty water?

frankApril 1st, 2008 at 10:19 am

why do all the proposals have to be built in seriously expensive skyscrapers? most of the buildings in cities aren’t skyscrapers, even in manhattan.
why not a four-story urban farm?
that actually seems more doable and believable.

David ByrdenApril 3rd, 2008 at 7:34 am

I don’t see how this can be cheaper than growing food in the countryside and transporting it to town?

origamiApril 3rd, 2008 at 11:25 am

I know it’s a nice idea, but I’m not really for it because it supports global urbanization. Any kind of world, planet, or place entirely lacking plants growing on the actual ground seems immoral to me, and these “farm buildings” say, in a way, that it doesn’t matter if we
burn down all the rain forests, there will still be our artificial “farm buildings” to keep us alive.

MartyApril 4th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

CaptainPlanet is right. Has anyone figured what the cost of teh agricultural produce would have to be to cover operating and capital costs with a market-rate profit? Maybe revisit this when corn is $1000.00 a bushel…

roujio87April 5th, 2008 at 11:38 pm

Thanks for your good job. It would be good if we could have pictures in a bigger size.

davidlwdnApril 6th, 2008 at 8:33 am

@david byrden

David, this is meant to remedy a possible problem in the future where the “country side” is almost non-existent.

As far as cost goes, the way I see it; Judging by some of the deisngs, it would seem possible to renovate an old parking garage into an agro-structure. Although this doesn’t completely cut costs, its cheaper than building a brand new structure.

nuggetApril 7th, 2008 at 7:16 pm

This is a perversion of nature.

DolloApril 11th, 2008 at 4:47 pm

SKYSCRAPER THINKING is still SKYSCRAPER Thinking..

It needs to work as a system of nature, not too much infrustructure. Not an architect’s wet dream, or cynical developer’s alibi.

Communities farm best, whether in the city or not.

Corporations will just dominate the skyline, the skylight and continue to overcharge for what should be almost free.

Hand these plans to organic gardeners, let’s see if it’s profit motivated.

GovindApril 14th, 2008 at 2:17 am

Sounds…and looks too cool! I’m sure putting so much nature in a concrete structure will not be easy…for instance putting a tree on the second floor…will not be easy…and the roots penetration will be an issue.

However, man’s domination over nature with steel and all things concrete should take care of it?

Kristal L. RosebrookApril 19th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

good pics
Kristal L. Rosebrook

PeterApril 19th, 2008 at 7:01 pm

This is so cool. My professional degree is in Architecture. Seeing buildings like that makes you want to design more.

How about the creations they have in Dubai? Dubai just blows me away. I can’t believe how much they have evolved there.

Keep up the great work.

Peter

AlisonApril 20th, 2008 at 2:39 pm

They all look stylish, it’ a great idea, but how will the soils keep healthy? Where will the nutrients and soils come from? What happens with waste waster and drainage

aceApril 26th, 2008 at 2:49 am

brilliant …NOT. Growing lettuce in a space that costs $300 a square foot? really? are you stoned or something? How about growing lettuce in a greenhouse which sits on a bed of gravel and has plastic sheets for walls. Maybe costs $5 a square foot. The only way using such valuable space would work economically is to charge the offices and apartments double and triple the normal rent. Unless you can find a market to sell a head of lettuce for $50.

KrystoferApril 30th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

Umm! WOAH! What about Paolo Soleri, the father of the Arcology ? What about Arcosanti, Mesa City, Cosanti ?

land for allMay 3rd, 2008 at 9:19 am

Could be a good idea…
Considering the continuous raises in petrol prices, transporting veggies from the country side is becoming very pricey. But so much for “organic” produces.

Micky MultaniMay 5th, 2008 at 12:43 am

This is amazing..finally something making good use of today’s technology

NoxMay 5th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

Soylent green….. it’s….people….

WasNotWasMay 9th, 2008 at 8:59 pm

The growing medium used in these structures will be hydroponics, different dynamic than soil growing. Smaller root mass means easier manageability. We already have a serious food crisis, and if something happens to the bread basket of the USA, we need something to fall back on. Although I tend to look more toward Cuba’s less glamorous looking solutions to it’s cities’ food security as a short term solution than this corporate slickness…although this could augment the Cuba greening of cities…

From Young landscape architect.July 6th, 2008 at 9:25 pm

Oh it’s the new architecture of different…..

deshanthiJuly 18th, 2008 at 8:00 pm

good concept and creative thinking.

Ty S.January 8th, 2009 at 2:17 pm

Good schematic designs, but they need to be taken much further into the realm of possibility – too many of these designs are driven, primarily, by aesthetic rather than function. Simultaneously, too many critics are quick to dismiss the concept of vertical farming, even though they make it very obvious that they are completely ignorant of the statisitcal information that supports the idea:

1) Our population will increase by 50% in the next 50 years
2) 70% of potable water is used just to irrigate crops via geoponic farming
3)We will require the additional development of land for agricultural production equal to the sqaure mileage of the land area of Brazil to feed the predicted population growth (or 23 million acres just for the United States.)
4) 80% of available farming land is already in use.

Thi shouldn’t be about profit ( or lack thereof), or “trendiness” – it is about necessity.

Ty S.January 8th, 2009 at 2:19 pm

edit: 130 million acres in the United States, not 23 million acres

rajuJanuary 12th, 2009 at 11:37 am

hi

john louie angJanuary 15th, 2009 at 1:34 am

hi.., im a 4th year architecture student… im about to have a thesis proposal in 5th year…this site catched my attention and made me intersted about this kind of project… i just want to know more informations and datas that are related into this project.. i also want to know the public reactions, ideas, thoughts and other knowledge that can help my research and public proposal… i would be thankful for those who are also intersted to share their ideas and opinions with me..
For me, this kind of projects specialy the vertical farm building is one of the unique masterpiece for the life in the future.. This will be the best solution for having the lack of farming spaces in the horizontal land… Thanks… God Bless

Jessica BrockJanuary 16th, 2009 at 3:05 pm

Thank you so much for this article on vertical farming. It is so important to turn as much attention to this subject matter in hopes of helping local communities with self sustainability and local health!
Please come to Valcent’s blog (http://blog.valcent.net) and/or site to see what we’re doing in our vertical farming facilities. We are vertically growing today in commercially sized facility and research center based out of El Paso, Texas.
Skyscraper agriculture has yet to be proved successful in a full size model. Vertical farming is successfully being produced realistically in large greenhouses. These are the steps toward locally grown produce which will help our economies stay self sufficient, economically stable, as well as healthy!
Also, please be sure to check out our recent feature in TIME magazine. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1865974,00.html

W. Allan BeanJanuary 26th, 2009 at 6:36 am

I am very interested in energy, water and food production ideas for the future. Also, I am a trained energy professional with a Masters degree and an under-graduate in economics.

Look forward to a lasting relationship.

aldriiMarch 4th, 2009 at 7:36 pm

hi….,
aldrii’ve visit this site.

Morgan BerryApril 8th, 2009 at 10:15 am

Wow! This is incredible! I hope I live to see this all come together! lol.
That would be amazing :)

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Ivan KampradMay 2nd, 2009 at 11:57 pm

I loved with Sky farm concept!
Have you think about the green plants photosynthesis? At night green plants produce CO2, it will be dangerous if there are too much green plants inside the house. But I really impressed with those design.

hong vanMay 11th, 2009 at 1:28 am

I’m a 2th architecture student .I’m very interested in green architecture.I hope this model will develop widely in the future………For a better life!

ForexJune 7th, 2009 at 11:53 pm

Yeah I would also like to see them come to life especially the sky farm.

The artistic planning is very nice, maybe we are looking the reality of tomorrow.

Claude BlackwellJune 18th, 2009 at 6:31 am

As Global warming continues the weather patterns will become less stable. Rains won’t come. come at the wrong time, too much and combinations of weather related variables will occur. Just once I would like us to be able to start a project, work out the bugs and have it working to perfection BEFORE WE HAVE TO HAVE IT IN ORDER TO SURVIVE!!! We don’t have to deal with problems ONLY when they are at the crisis stage! Pay it forward, dudes, cause it ain’t goin to get any cheaper!!! And the population of this world is only going to get larger faster and faster! If you do the research you will find that “good” farm land is DECREASING and what we have is being over utilized…. and most requires HEAVY irrigation. Not to mention heavy fertilizing and pesticides Think about it and weigh the actual costs of regular farming and compare it ti vertical farming. The farmer has done a great job of feeding the world up to now… times change and methods also!!! We can have both as some crops will not be able to fit in vertical farms…. wheat is one of those crops!

There are many places that NEED this technology because of land restrictions… and the cost of shipping in fresh produce! Cayman Islands, Hawaii, And many more… Yeah and we NEED battery powered vehicles also!!!